Page:Bush burning, yet not consumed, or, The church in the furnace, yet still preserved (2).pdf/2



Now Moſes kept the Flock of Jethro his Father in Law, the prieſt of Midian: and he led the Flock to the Back Side of the Deſert, and came to the ''Mountain of God even to Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a Flame of Fire out of the Midſt of a Buſh: and he looked and'' behold, the Buſh burned with fire, and the Buſh was not conſumed.

MAnifold Metaphors are made uſe of by the Spirit of God in the holy Scriptures, to illluſtrate and ſet forth the nature and properties of the church: ſo in the words of our text, ſhe gets the denomination of a Buſh, a poor mean Bramble Buſh a decpicable like creature that makes a very ſilly and mean appearance in the view of the world the glorious Monarch of Heaven when he appeared on the Stage of this world, to accompliſh the purposes of his Father's love and grace made but a mean and inſignificant appearance. Far from answering the carnal expectation the Jews had conceived of him and was eſteemed as a tender plant, and a root ſpringing out of a dry ground, by the unbelieving and blind generation that then acted their part on the ſtage of life, who ſaw not the glory, the divinity and raviſhing excellency of his perſon, concealed under the rags of the human nature: juſt ſo does the ſpouſe of Chriſt though her robes are of needlework, and ſhe be all glorious within: though ſhe be the ſeed-royal of heaven, and has her deſcent from above, make but a mean, ſilly and contemptible